Tag: characters

Historical Fiction at its best

I finished Rumors, the second Luxe novel by Anna Godbersen! If possible, it was even more intriguing than the first one. I don’t want to rehash the book because it’s been out there for awhile but here is the tag line on the back of the book:

True love. False friends. Scandelous gossip. Welcome back to Manhattan. 1899.

You gotta love that dress as well although if I had a choice I would definetely pick the dress from book one! Penelope I am not!!
Since Elizabeth is “dead” the story focuses attention on Diana, who with her spunk and playful attitude is my favorite character. I loved crossing back to Elizabeth and Will’s story and hearing about the California frontier. I prefer a good character-driven story but this one really has it all as the characters just feed into this incredible plot line.
I had to put the book down several times to scream, for joy and dismay. This time I did not get to read it out loud to my husband (click here for my post about The Luxe/reading to my husband) but I did have to catch him up several times, read certain sections to him and he was seriously stunned when I finished reading it one night while he was away! Anna Godbersen put in an incredible amount of time researching this era, I think and I enjoying understanding more about this time period. Thanks again to Janssen for reviewing this series.

If you have not read this series and you enjoy historical fiction, please go out and buy a copy-the paperbacks are a very reasonable $9.99-you will not be disappointed.

Harper Teen website click here.

Other highlights of the week.
Well, of course the Nobel Peace Prize-joy mixed w/ fear.
Lost my copy of Keeping the moon by Sarah Dessen-read it one day and the next it was poof!!
I have a new phone in my life-the Propel in lime green.
I am pretty excited even though I am not material type:)

Peaceful Reading…

Savvy by Ingrid Law

This book had already arrived at my school library when my local indie book store gave me an ARC of it for a project I helped them with and I’m so glad they did. Students have been checking out the one at school while I’ve been able to keep reading my copy at home. Win-Win, yes.

The Blurb on the back says:

Mibs Beaumont is about to become a teenager. As if that prospect weren’t scary enough, thirteen is when a Beaumont’s savvy strikes-and with one brother who causes hurricanes and another who creates electricity, her savvy promises to be outrageous…and positively thrilling.

Right before her big birthday moment though her father’s in an car accident and Mibs’ birthday dreams are temporarily crushed. The very best part of this book takes place when Mibs decides to stowaway on an old pink school bus with Lester, who’s been selling pink Bibles to the minister so she can get to Salina, right where Poppa is resting up.
Two of her brothers, Samson and Fish, join her on the bus as well as two friends, Will, Jr and Bobbi. Will, Jr.’s characters is sweet and helpful but it’s Bobbi, whose character transforms the most. Lester and later, Lill, the mother hen-always-late waitress help this band of children get to where they need to go, together. I liked this book for the wonderful premise, the great words and the friendships that bloomed.
Here are two of my favorite quotes from the book:

“Perhaps Samson’s strengthing touch was just an ordinary sort of magic, the kind of magic that exists in the honest, heartfelt concern of one person for another. Regardless of the reason, with Samson’s small hand on my arm, it wasn’t long before my eyes began to dry.” (p. 113)

and

“I watched Lill gaze fondly at Lester. I could tell by the way she looked at him that she found something in the man she admired. Maybe it had been the way Lester stopped to rescue her from her broken-down car, or how he’d helped her pick her money up off the floor, or his spur-of-the-moment plunder of the pie from the diner. Lester might not have looked the part of a hero, but I suppose you never can tell right off who might have a piece of Prince Charming deep down inside.” (p. 199)

These are the characters that make you want everything, just simple everything, to turn out fine!! This is an amazing first book for Ingrid Law and you can find her information here.

I’m already a few chapters into Sarah Dessen’s Keeping the moon and yet I managed to head to the bookstore after school to purchase both Rumors (The Luxe #2) by Anna Godbersen and Liar by Justine Larbalestier. Tough reading choices ahead.

Peaceful Reading…

Umbrella Summer by Lisa Graf


What a radiant cover!! I ordered Umbrella Summer by Lisa Graff in early August and even though, I was so taken by the cover, I let it languish on my tbr bookcase until 3 days ago. I’m sure I picked it up right when I needed to read it.

Synopsis:

It’s summer vacation and Annie fills her days with reading about infectious diseases and going through boxes of band-aids. She rides her bike with full gear on and eventually starts wearing her bike helmet almost everywhere for extra protection. Her fears are sadly real because her brother, Jared has recently died of a sudden heart complication and Annie doesn’t want anything to happen to her. Her fears, while real, begin to take the joy out of life and Annie begins to understand this especially after she meets her new neighbor, Mrs. Finch! Mrs. Finch has this amazing quote that parallels grief with an umbrella-I would quote it here but to do that would reveal to much-You must read it yourself to discover it. I wish Mrs. Finch would move to my neighborhood-she could help me with so much! Baking chocolate chip cookies and playing gin rummy are good solutions for many things!! Mrs. Finch was the character that gave the book depth, for me. Annie’s best friend, Rebecca and her father, Dr. Young helped as well. His word wall was a wonderful addition.

The first half of the book I was mentally begging her parents to seek grief counseling for the whole family. Most of the second half of the book I spent with tears running down my face as Annie worked on closing her umbrella. Wow! This book was far more powerful then the first few chapters led me to think. It’s not often that a book makes me openly shed massive tears for several chapters yet the book isn’t sad; just a beautiful look at life.

I think this book deals with grief a family might have after the death of a child in a very realistically. I wanted to shake the parents many times and say “wake up! Talk to your daughter” then I reminded myself grief is different for everyone. I finished this book in a beautiful city park in Floyd, IA where I was waiting for my 14-yr-old son. The park was filled with trees just beginning their fall transformation and it was a lovely place to read. My son had been at my mom and step-father’s farm, having his first hunting experience. This has been a pt. of contention for years between my son and I-me, peaceful reader, Why would you want to kill a living creature?? I think he inherited my father’s hunting genes and I have to close my own umbrella just a tiny bit to let him lead his own teen-age life. I have to remind myself it is only hunting and in a controlled, safe environment with an adult male who has great respect for the earth. Finishing the book when I did helped me work all that out so thank you Lisa Graff and Mrs. Finch for helping me right at the perfect time. The book also resurfaced my own grief about my Dad’s untimely death, made me mad at him for a bit on why he wasn’t there to be with Tristan during this important time in his life. All this from a chapter book-see what I mean-Wow! Now, I think I will bake some chocolate chip cookies!!
This book is perfect for 4th-6th grade.
Lisa Graff blogs here at The Longstockings spot.

Peaceful Reading…

The Magician's Elephant by Kate DiCamillo

All readers must stop and eat or cook, in order to be able to eat! Obviously, author Kate DiCamillo understands this as well-her references to soup in The Tale of Despereaux are one of the reasons I love the book so much. Saturday night I had to put down my copy of The Magician’s Elephant–I’m only one chapter away from finishing-to make dinner so we could eat before going to a play. I had a recipe from my Veg. Times I knew I was making but I also had a very large eggplant staring at me. I googled a recipe and came up with Eggplant Fries! Recipe from VT-Chickpea Croquettes-and they were yummy!! Dinner was delicious and we made it to both plays on time! Right before the play I had an extra 20 minutes and I was w/out children, which left me with quiet time to read the last chapter.
It was so worth it!!!

The Magician’s Elephant by Kate DiCamillo (September, 2009) is a beautiful, sweeping novel for all readers and it’s only 201 pages long.

It begins…

At the end of the century before last, in the market square of the city of Baltese, there stood a boy with a hat on his head and a coin in his hand. The boy’s name was Peter Augustus Duchene, and the coin that he held did not belong to him but was instead the property of his guardian, an old soldier named Vilna Lutz, who had sent the boy to the market for fish and bread.

Peter, in a rash moment, decides to use the money for a fortune teller, who tells him his sister is alive and if he follows the elephant, he will find Adele. How is Peter supposed to find an elephant in Baltese? His need to locate his sister is so great he listens to his heart. Little does he know forces have been set into motion and a magician trying to do achieve something amazing utters a spell unlike any he has ever uttered and an elephant appears. Piece by piece everyone finds just what they need.

Like Desperaux, this book threads together several characters to create one finale. Peter shows us all that if you listen to your heart and your dreams, good things will follow. I love DiCamillo’s style of writing and this book proves her skill once again. I really love the names her characters are given…I’m sure they just come to her! Peter’s name is beautiful while Vilna Lutz just doesn’t sound like someone you want to hang around. If you haven’t read any of her books start at the beginning with Because of Winn-Dixie, a great book as well as a great movie-not easy to find that combination.
If you want to read synopsis of The Magician’s elephant click here.
Read another great review here at Stainless Steel Droppings.

Peaceful Reading…

Bella And Bean by Rebecca Kai Dotlich

This little book by Dolitch, is the kind that give me tingles after I read it! You know, like when someone brushes your hair-those tingles!
It is a lovely story! Bella writes poetry and Bean wants to play, she wants the attention of her friend, Bella.
It begins like this: “Bella lived in an old brick house with white shutters, just up the hill from Spoon Pond. Every day she wrote poetry at a small desk, beneath a small window, shaded by a canopy the color of plums. ” Bean likes to come to that exact window to talk to Bella and is bored with Bella’s writing time.
Eventually Bella gets to a stopping point, misses Bean and goes off to seek her friend. What happens next is wonderful because the two friends begin to create some word imagery together and Bella puts it all together!! I’ve already taken this to my favorite 5th grade teacher so she can use it to introduce her poetry unit this year! The illustrations are beautifully drawn by Aileen Leijten. Thank you Rebecca and Aileen for giving me book tingles!! (2009, simonsayskids publishing)
Click her to see Aileen’s website. (including a link to another great blog (seven impossible things to do before breakfast for an interview with Aileen.)
Peaceful Reading…

This Lullaby by Sarah Dessen

Love is a mixed topic; either you are a believer or not…and perhaps there are certain degrees on each side. Gray areas if you will but Remy Starr, our heroine in This Lullaby is very much a “love is a sham”-kinda person! She is also a just graduated senior on her way to Stanford at the end of summer.
Her mother is preparing for wedding number five when the book opens. Remy keeps the Starr family together while her mother, a Romance Writer(the Barbara Starr), writes and swoons and her brother, Christopher is busy trying to have a regular life.
Remy, finalizing wedding details with the groom, is bumped into by Dexter, a new-in-town musician, looking at well, tires. He repeats their first encounter later that night at Bendo, the local club:

We arrived at the booth in a pack; me, Dexter the musician, and Chloe. I was out of breath, she looked confused but he just slid in next to Jess, offering his hand. “Hi,” he said. “I’m with them.”
Jess looked at me, but I was too tired to do anything but plop into the booth and suck down a gulp of my beer. “Well,” she said, “I’m with them. But I’m not with you. How is that possible?”
“Well,” he said, its actually an interesting story.” No one said anything for a minute. Finally I groaned and said “God, you guys, now he’s going to tell it.”
“See,” he began leaning back into the booth, “I was at this car dealership today, and I saw this girl…”

Dexter continues to relay exactly how he feels about Remy and how that feeling is so, so grand! Remy’s crew of friends giggle and Remy is slumped, embarrassed but this quick repartee between Sarah Dessen’s well-structured characters is just what makes her books so fun and readable. This is not an easy love story just as Remy is not an easy character. She’s complicated, she’s experienced things beyond normal, her world view is a bit skewed but somehow she feels comfortable with long-limbed, shoes-untied bumbling Dexter, once she gives him a chance.

This book is has some wonderful across the spectrum views about love and is very funny-like-laugh-out-loud-funny! I sat by the pool yesterday and read, and I was the only mom, who was reading and laughing at the same time. This is my second Dessen book this summer, I reviewed Someone like you here, and now I’ve gone and purchased her first one, That Summer to round out Kaylee’s collection. I like that Dessen’s books appeal to a wide audience, high school through adults. I asked my 14-year-old son if he would read this book…after a long pause, he said sheepishly, “maybe”.

Peaceful Reading…

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout


This book has been on my mental to-read list for awhile and I finally found it in at the library. I suggested it to my book club to read and I thought perhaps I should pre-read it to see what I got everyone into.

The book began slowly for me, then I got involved with the characters and loved it.

Olive Kitteridge is set up in thirteen different vignettes, each one giving us just a little bit more information about Olive and her husband, Henry in Crosby, Maine. This book made me think; information is doled out in small snippets and even then you need to read between the lines to fully understand how each person fits into the big picture. Olive is not a friendly character yet I grew to love her and her gruffness. The book slowly winds you from one part of Henry and Olive’s lives together, finishing with Olive alone, having learned something of herself. I can understand why this book won the Pulitzer Prize as it is a real snapshot of American culture. The characters are human and believable and this is the meat of everyday.

Here are two of my very favorite quotes from the book:

“That’s what Kathleen says. Tim met her when he was driving around the country following some band. I guess people just follow this band around, Fish or Pish. Something. Remember Kevin talking about Dead Heads, people who followed around that mess-what were they called? The Grateful Dead? I always found that offensive.”
“He died,” said Harmon. “That fat fellow Jerry of that band.”
“Well, I hope he died gratefully,” Bonnie said. (pg. 89)

and

In the doctor’s waiting room she sat, reading a magazine. After an hour, the nurse came out and said, “Mr. Kennison’s worried about you waiting so long.”
“Well, tell him to stop it. I’m perfectly comfortable.” And she was. In fact, it had been a long time since she’d been this comfortable. She wouldn’t have minded if it took all day. It was a newsmagazine she was reading, something she hadn’t done for quite a while-she turned one page quickly, because she couldn’t stand to look at the president’s face. His close-set eyes, the jut of his chin, the sight offended her viscerally. (pg. 255)

The idea of someone being more comfortable in a doctor’s waiting room office than somewhere in her own life is so very much Olive. To understand why you’ll have to read the book!!

Here is the NY Times article about Olive Kitteridge.

Peaceful Reading…